One of the potential criticisms of Jeb Bush as a presidential candidate is that he doesn’t have the “fire in the belly,” that he’s been out of the game. Well, he was no Fred Thompson at his speech and following Q&A Wednesday at the Detroit Economic Club. Bush came across as a man very much engaged. Continue reading →

Despite Eric Cantor’s seismic loss in Virginia, establishment Republicans had another good month in June. The Virginia congressman and now-former majority leader’s defeat did not appear to have tea party election ripples beyond his district. Check out our updated list of Top 10 Senate races to watch. Continue reading →

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Deputy Chief of Staff Bridget Anne Kelly (L) stand at the scene of a September 12 boardwalk fire in Seaside Heights, New Jersey. Photo by Phil Stilton/Getty Images

The revelations Wednesday that the September 2013 lane closures at the George Washington Bridge not only appeared to be part of a political vendetta, but that a top aide to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie played a role in the incident, has thrown the potential 2016 GOP contender’s political future into jeopardy.

The details of the email and text message exchanges between Christie’s deputy chief of staff, Bridget Anne Kelly, and two appointees to the Port Authority, show that access roads from Fort Lee, N.J., to the bridge were shut down in retaliation for the town’s Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich, declining to endorse the Republican’s re-election bid last year. That contradicted claims by the Christie administration that the decision was part of a traffic study ordered by the Port Authority.

A Senate employee walks through the Capitol Crypt at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

It’s not often the Senate works through the night.

But Republicans — still fuming because the Democrats who control the chamber forced through a rule change to speed up the confirmation process for presidential nominees — have worked to throw a wrench in the works and slow it down as much as they are able.

Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Patty Murray walk to their joint news conference at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday. Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan and Washington State Democrat Patty Murray hailed the budget deal they unveiled Tuesday night as a “step in the right direction,” averting another potential government shutdown in the new year and breaking through the partisan gridlock that has plagued Congress in recent years.

The lead negotiators acknowledged the bipartisan agreement, which rolls back some of the sequester spending cuts while achieving $22 billion in additional deficit savings, involved compromise from both sides.

Congressional leaders are headed back to Washington Tuesday to try to finish work on a budget deal so they can go home for the holidays on Friday. Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

Quick, what’s the opposite of a grand bargain?

In the end, it’s not going to matter what the budget compromise taking shape is dubbed. The biggest question is whether conservatives will revolt.

Budget Chairs Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan are working furiously to put the finishing touches on a $1 trillion spending measure to be revealed in the next 36 hours, and it’s not sounding like it will make any sweeping changes to how the government taxes and spends.

Early reports suggest the deal, pulled together to avoid shutting down the government, would leave entitlement programs and tax rates as they are. It also would leave in place many of the automatic, across-the-board budget cuts known as the sequester. Spending would be slightly higher than the $967 billion framework initially considered, and it would not, as Democrats had hoped, extend federal unemployment benefits.

Rep. Paul Ryan listens to Sen. Patty Murray during a Nov. 13 budget conference meeting on Capitol Hill. The two are tasked with finding a compromise spending plan to fund the government by Friday. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

Members of the House and Senate on Monday will be in the same place at the same time, starting the clock on an intense week of necessary action on Capitol Hill.

Friday is the most critical deadline, with Budget Chairs Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Paul Ryan tasked with presenting a compromise spending plan to fund the government and avoid another shutdown. READ MORE

Fast food workers in 100 cities are expected to walk off the job in protest Thursday. In this file photo from April, a McDonald’s worker chants during a protest for better wages in Harlem. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images

President Barack Obama on Wednesday outlined a sweeping populist agenda for the three years he has left in office, making the case that government cannot “stand on the sidelines” when it comes to addressing the issue of economic inequality.

“In fact, that’s our generation’s task — to rebuild America’s economic and civic foundation to continue the expansion of opportunity for this generation and the next generation,” the president said during remarks at an arts and education center in a working-class neighborhood not far from the nation’s capital.